No public consultation yet for climate and energy plans
Malta’s National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) has yet to be put up for public consultation, despite EU governments having a deadline to submit these in nine days, an NGO has said.
In a statement yesterday, eNGO Friends of the Earth Malta (FOEM) said that EU member states have an obligation to draw up these plans which detail how they intend to address issues such as decarbonisation, energy efficiency, energy security, the internal energy market as well as research, innovation and competitiveness in the energy sector in order to meet EU climate targets.
But, despite the deadline for national governments to submit these plans in nine days’ time, on June 30, the Maltese government has yet to communicate its plans publicly.
FOEM said that no formal public consultation process has taken place and neither a draft nor the final NECP document has been made publicly available, despite the NGO attempting to access information about the document and the process since May 2023.
The group also said that it sent a letter to Energy Minister Miriam Dalli and Prime Minister Robert Abela highlighting these facts. Dalli, they said, replied that a consultation process was “about to start in the coming days” but, to date, no open consultation has taken place.
According to the rules that guide the formation of the NECP, member states must make sure that the public and civil society are given the opportunity to participate in the drafting of these plans well before the document is finalised.
FOEM said that it fears that these obligations have not been met, even after explicit instructions to do so were made by the European Commission in its recommendations to Malta.
“Public participation is essential for effective climate action and energy policy. Failing to implement obligatory public participation processes is a failure of democratic decision-making,” Suzanne Maas, FOEM’s climate campaign coordinator, said.
“The government of Malta has thus far not enabled the public to participate in the preparation of the NECP and has failed to establish a multilevel climate and energy dialogue to discuss different scenarios for energy and climate policies,” the statement continues.
“With the deadline in sight, it is now too late for ‘early and effective’ opportunities to participate in the preparation of the draft and final NECP as stipulated.”
“Public participation is essential